As reported earlier, RBC Capital analyst Paul Quinn downgraded International Paper (IP) to Sector Perform from Outperform and lowered his price target to $57 from $70. The analyst say that the company has "considerable tailwinds" in its core North America containerboard business as well as strong conditions in the pulp and paper business, but sees the potential acquisition of Smurfit Kappa (SMFTF) clouding the picture while producing a "considerable valuation overhang". Quinn believes that International Paper's synergy expectations are overly ambitions and the price it is willing to pay is too high.

Reports Q1 revenue $4.62B, consensus $4.56B. "International Paper made progress executing our strategic initiatives in the first quarter,'' said Mark Sutton, chairman and CEO. "We saw commercial benefits from our business strategies, as well as cost benefits from mill system optimization. Although costs remain elevated and volumes were seasonally lower in the quarter, market trends continue to improve."